215 degrees
My brother's been visiting this week, and he loves our sauna.
The great thing about hosting someone who's completely comfortable with you—someone who doesn't care what you think of them—is that you see how they actually use your house.
He wanders around, gravitates to certain rooms and pieces of furniture, and uses things the way he would if he lived here. No self-consciousness. Just living.
Yesterday morning I went for a run around the neighborhood—we've been having some really beautiful cool spring weather, as good as it gets—and then did a kettlebell workout in the backyard afterward. I love a good minimalist workout without a bunch of gear, and there's so much you can do with a kettlebell, especially when the weather is incredible.
We have a Tonal inside, which is a true masterpiece of fitness equipment, like having a whole gym on one wall. But the kettlebell is a wonderful way to switch things up and be outside.
And then you pop into that roasting hot Cedro Sauna afterward, and all is right in the world.
I set it to 215 degrees and stayed in there for 25 minutes. If you click through a bunch of disclosures in the Huum Control, you can disable the governor and push it past the default 194 up to 230 (for psychos). I don't think too many people need 230, but 215 is really something.
I sit in there looking out at the garden I've poured so much of myself into to create over the last two months. Cool outside air, 215 degrees inside. It's kind of indescribable how wonderful you feel after that. Highly reccomend.
Feeling like a king
I spend so much time making our house look great. Part of that was the video tour we just filmed (should be out in a month). Part of it is that it's spring, and we lost two huge trees over the winter, tore up the backyard putting in the sauna, and now it's time to get it right.
But how wonderful it is to just stop and enjoy it.
clover & water
Every year, I seed and reseed fescue grass.
I've gotten very good at this. The trick is to germinate the grass seed in peat moss first in a wheelbarrow, then put it down onto the lawn after your initial sprouts start. If you just put the seed down, it doesn't work as well.
But still, we get patchiness year after year because we don't water enough, and it just gets so scorching hot in July and August.
So I'm looking for a more permanent solution. We've settled on clover.
I also want much more natural pollination in the yard, so this is a good way to achieve that. Clover is very hardy and doesn't require nearly as much water as grass. When we're gone during the summer, it doesn't matter who we get to water our plants and the lawn—we always come back, and it looks pretty terrible.
I don't have irrigation; I water every other day. Probably something we should invest in. I've thought about getting one of these smart irrigation systems rather than installing an in-ground system, because the lawn is so small. Not sure yet.
This above is Oto, there's also Irrigreen, and Aiper Irrisense. I've never used any of these, but you program your custom water area, and apparently, they water just that with one rotating smart sprinkler head. Let me know if you've used any of these!
But for now, clover seems like the right move. Something durable that can take hot sun and low water before it turns brown or dies. So far, we've been really happy with it.
some things i saw this week
I'm obsessed with this art-framed door by Antoine Billore in his show L'Apartment with L'Artisan Parfumeur.
Very unorthodox, very striking.
I also appreciate the new collection, Howell x Harrier for Crate & Barrel. This is interior designer Tiffany Howell aka Night Palm, who I have followed for years and love with collaborator actress Laura Harrier.
I loved Athena Calderone's collection with Crate, and this collection feels like a continuation of a pretty overtly Art Deco path, which is a wise choice for the brand that's been fairly tame stylistically over the years. Sebastian Brauer at the product helm has been a wise choice.
